Want to Growth Hack your Passion Project? Start with a Great Domain and Web Host

Have you got a passion project and you want to growth hack it? Want to give you the best opportunity to get high rankings on Google and start generating some money from it?

Well the first step is to find your niche by finding low competition keywords that get a lot of searches on Google.

After you have chosen your niche and keyword it's a good idea to see if you can get that key word in a domain name.

Recently Google introduced the Exact Match Domain change to their search queries, which meant that having a keyword in the domain isn't as big of a deal.

It used to be huge to have a domain name with your keyword in it, for example sailinginmelbourne.com (if you are targeting sailing in melbourne) because it would give you a much better chance of getting number 1 on Google. Now it is less important, but it still has weight and also because it makes it much easier to find you. If you say to someone to visit sailinginmeloburne.com it is much easier to remember and more universal - rather than an abstract business name.

Next you need Web Hosting. If you are wanting to create purely an online store with multiple products like an eCommerce store similar to ASOS or something, then I suggest using Shopify, which comes with hosting built in. Probably the best online eCommerce solution in the world.

If however you want to create an informational site with maybe just one or two products, you need your own web hosting and for that I suggest Hostgator. They are cheap, reliable and have great customer service. I have been using them for years and have always been really happy with them.

For your information web hosting is where your site is saved online - on a web host company's server. A server is basically just a computer that is always on, your computer connects to it and your web browser displays your site on it because that's where it is saved, it displays it through the domain name (www.yoursite.com). Domain names are just a mask for the computer's IP address. An IP address looks like 102.345.457.25 and is the computers home address so you can find it online through your browser. The domain name just saves you from having to type in the IP address of 102.345.457.25 into the web browser because we are unlikely to remember that, we will however remember www.yoursite.com much easier.

So think of your domain name as your address to your house, the address means nothing if there is no house and land. It is just a bunch of words. Your web hosting and web site that is built on it, is your house and land.

Knowing that, you would think that Google is much more likely to display sites up the rankings that are on a good pieces of land (good fast web hosts), there are some terrible servers out there and they can cost you rankings on Google. So if you think about web hosting like land, going with a good reputable hosting company is paramount because you are basically buying premium land - not a dodgy tiny piece of land next to a garbage tip.

I will probably have a lot of SEO professionals saying this doesn't matter at all, but I don't care what other people say I've tried heaps of different servers and have noticed a difference in traffic from being at a good one.

There is also the argument of using a web hosting company that is in your country so that Google displays you first as the hosting is in your local area. But it is not essential. Speed and reliability come first!

If you want to give yourself the best opportunity to growth hack. Make sure you follow these steps of getting a good domain with a good web host!